As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As power consumption and power management become further developed, there is a greater need for incorporating sensor sample temporal data within the system power management control system, and eventually across multiple systems. In recent years, polling of sensor data was only required in the low seconds to enable early usage models such as: long-term average system power consumption; power capping/throttling for thermal management; or power capping to a long-term average ceiling. Tight temporal coordination of control and telemetry was not required.
More recent usage models—such as power capping to a PSU (power supply unit) current output limit, power capping to an external circuit breaker or PDU (power distribution unit), enhanced performance per watt optimization, among others—require sensor data polling in the tenths of seconds. Example control systems may read power sensors up to 10 Hz, DIMM (dual in-line memory module) thermal sensors up to 8 Hz, and may adjust system performance states at up to 4 Hz. These usage models require only loose coordination of control and telemetry, which is assumed to be much faster than the polling rate and control loop time.
However, next generation usage models may require control and telemetry in the 100s to 1000s Hz or more, where it may become critical that the power- and thermal-related sensor data be time-correlated across various subsystems (PSUs, voltage regulators, thermal sensors, etc.). Current state-of-the-art power management buses, interfaces, and methods do not provide the required timestamp and time-correlation methods to support these usage models.